‘Pushed to the brink.’ South Sound cidermaker has closed more taprooms, including Olympia

Less than six weeks after closing its Tacoma taproom, a Washington state cidermaker that quickly expanded to several states has closed seven additional locations.

Locust Cider said Tuesday that six of its Washington taprooms had kicked the can. They include Olympia at 222 Market downtown, Vancouver, Redmond and Walla Walla, as well as two of its Seattle outposts — Alki Beach and First Hill.

As was the case for the Sixth Avenue taproom in Tacoma, the decision was a bittersweet necessity.

“While this decision is necessary to ensure the future health of our company, it’s also incredibly painful,” owners Jason and Rebecca Spears wrote on Instagram and Facebook on Dec. 10.

Locust Cider moved its headquarters from Woodinville to Gig Harbor in 2021. The adjacent taproom at 3207 57th St. Ct., near the Gig Harbor Inn, and the connected “Under the Tower Beer Garden” are among the seven that will stick around.

Other survivors include Woodinville, Spokane and two in downtown Seattle that are just a half-mile apart (Post Alley near Pike Place Market and a mixed-use complex near Pier 66). The company also will retain its two Colorado taprooms.

After launching the brand in 2015, Locust grew to “a network of taprooms” where it hoped to foster a gathering place for fellow cider lovers. Much of that expansion was active or en route by 2019, and those plans ran headfirst into pandemic downturns.

“Like so many others, we were pushed to the brink,” wrote the founders in their Tuesday post. “We kept going — sometimes stubbornly — when what we really needed was to pause and rebuild with a clearer, more sustainable path.”

For now, they hold that their “mission isn’t changing — just the scale of it.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 5:15 AM.